Chapter 4
Cursors and Exception Handling
Chapter Objectives
P L / S Q L
Brewbeans Challenge
P L / S Q L
Cursors
P L / S Q L
Work area in which SQL statement is processed Implicit cursor declared automatically for DML and SELECT statements Explicit cursor declared and managed programmatically to handle a set of rows returned by a SELECT statement Cursor variable reference or pointer to a work area or cursor
Cursor Attributes
P L / S Q L
Attribute Name %ROWCOUNT Data type Number Description
%FOUND
Boolean
TRUE if at least one row is affected by the SQL statement, otherwise FALSE
TRUE if no rows are affected by the SQL statement, otherwise FALSE
%NOTFOUND
Boolean
Implicit Cursor
P L / S Q L
Explicit Cursor
P L / S Q L
Step 1 Step Activity DECLARE Activity Description Creates a named cursor identified by a SELECT statement. The SELECT statement does not include an INTO clause. Values in the cursor are moved to PL/SQL variables with the FETCH step. Processes the query and creates the active set of rows available in the cursor. Retrieves a row from the cursor into block variables. Each consecutive FETCH issued will retrieve the next row in the cursor until all rows have been retrieved. Clears the active set of rows and frees the memory area used for the cursor.
OPEN
FETCH
CLOSE
Close cursor
Handles tasks automatically for processing each row returned by a cursor (record declaration, fetch, ending loop) Use FOR UPDATE and WHERE CURRENT OF clauses for record locking
10
Use parameters to make dynamic Parameters are values passed to the cursor when it is opened Enables the cursor to retrieve different data based on the input values
11
12
Cursor Variable
P L / S Q L
More efficiently handles data returned by query by returning a pointer to the work area rather than the actual result set The same cursor variable can be used for different query statements
13
Example (continued)
P L / S Q L ELSIF lv_input1_num = 2 THEN OPEN cv_prod FOR SELECT * FROM bb_basketstatus WHERE idBasket = lv_input2_num; LOOP FETCH cv_prod INTO rec_status; EXIT WHEN cv_prod%NOTFOUND; DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(rec_status.idStage || ' - ' || rec_status.dtstage); END LOOP; END IF; END;
15
Bulk-processing
P L / S Q L
Improve performance of multirow queries and DML statements Processes groups of rows without context switching between the SQL and PL/SQL processing engine Use in FETCH with LIMIT clause FORALL option with DML activity
16
Bulk-processing (Query)
P L / S Q L
DECLARE CURSOR cur_item IS SELECT * FROM bb_basketitem; TYPE type_item IS TABLE OF cur_item%ROWTYPE INDEX BY PLS_INTEGER; tbl_item type_item; BEGIN OPEN cur_item; LOOP FETCH cur_item BULK COLLECT INTO tbl_item LIMIT 1000; FOR i IN 1..tbl_item.COUNT LOOP DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(tbl_item(i).idBasketitem || ' -' || tbl_item(i).idProduct); END LOOP; EXIT WHEN cur_item%NOTFOUND; END LOOP; CLOSE cur_item; END;
Oracle11g: PL/SQL Programming 17
Bulk-processing (DML)
P L / S Q L DECLARE TYPE emp_type IS TABLE OF NUMBER INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER; emp_tbl emp_type; BEGIN SELECT empID BULK COLLECT INTO emp_tbl FROM employees WHERE classtype = '100'; FORALL i IN d_emp_tbl.FIRST .. emp_tbl.LAST UPDATE employees SET raise = salary * .06 WHERE empID = emp_tbl(i); COMMIT; END;
18
Exception Handlers
P L / S Q L
Used to capture error conditions and handle the processing to allow the application to continue Placed in the EXCEPTION section of a PL/SQL block Two types of errors
1. Oracle errors (Predefined and NonPredefined) 2. User-defined errors
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR
19
TOO_MANY_ROWS
CASE_NOT_FOUND
ZERO_DIVIDE DUP_VAL_ON_INDEX
20
21
Undefined Error
P L / S Q L
22
Handler Added
P L / S Q L
23
User-Defined Exception
P L / S Q L
No system error is raised Raise errors to enforce business rules Once error is raised, the remaining statements in the executable sections are not executed Processing moves to the exception area of the block
24
25
26
WHEN OTHERS traps all errors not specifically addressed by an exception handler and used for handling unanticipated errors SQLCODE and SQLERRM functions used to identify the error code and message, especially in application, testing to identify unanticipated errors
27
Example
P L / S Q L
28
Exception Propagation
P L / S Q L
Exception handling in nested blocks Exception raised in a block will first look for handler in the exception section of that block, if no handler found, execution will move to the exception section of the enclosing block Error in DECLARE section propagates directly to exception section of the enclosing block Error in exception handler propagates to exception section of the enclosing block
29
Exception Propagation
P L / S Q L
30
Commenting Code
P L / S Q L
Add comments within code to identify code purpose and processing steps Use /* */ to enclose a multiline comment Use -- to add a single or partial line comment
31
Comment Examples
P L / S Q L
DECLARE ex_prod_update EXCEPTION; --For UPDATE of no rows exception BEGIN /* This block is used to update product descriptions Constructed to support the Prod_desc.frm app screen Exception raised if no rows updated */ UPDATE bb_product SET description = 'Mill grinder with 5 grind settings!' WHERE idProduct = 30; --Check if any rows updated IF SQL%NOTFOUND THEN RAISE ex_prod_update; END IF; EXCEPTION WHEN ex_prod_update THEN DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Invalid product id entered'); END;
Oracle11g: PL/SQL Programming 32
Summary
P L / S Q L
Implicit cursors are automatically created for SQL statements Explicit cursors are declared Cursors allow the processing of a group of rows CURSOR FOR Loops simplify cursor coding Parameters make cursors more dynamic A REF CURSOR acts like a pointer BULK processing options can improve performance for queries and DML activity
33
Summary (continued)
P L / S Q L
Add error handlers in the EXCEPTION area to manage Oracle and user-defined errors Exception propagation is the flow of error handling processing Use comments in code for documentation
34